Child Protection in Africa Union Peace Support Operations Knowledge & Learning

Event

7-9 December 2015

Dakar, Senegal

By Col (Rtd) K Kamili

The Role of the Military component in Child

Protection in Armed Conflict

Introduction • The Military peacekeepers are mandated by the Security

Council (SC) resolutions, African peace and Security Resolutions on protection of children in armed conflicts.

• Security council resolution SCRs 1261 (1999), 1379 (2001), 1460 (2003), 1612 (2005) and 2143 ( 2014 ) specifically call for training of peacekeepers on the protection and rights of chidlen and pre -deployment training on Children protection (CP) in armed conflicts.

• This presentation will inform the participants that, while the military have specific and very important roles in CP but it is important to understand that they can not do it all, that they are other actors who specialise in providing certain services.

Expected out come • Understand the basis for guidance on child

protection at the Strategic, Operational and Tactical levels;

• Understand the roles and the responsibilities of the Military component in relation to child protection;

• Understand guiding principles and Military actions that are required in response to grave violations against childrens' rights

Protection by the Military

Component

• The Military Component must have the

capability to protect it self in order to be

able to protect others.

The Military Component

Resources

The Military component Resources

How would you react ?

Where does the military get the

authority & means to protect ?

• The Mandate & ROE (Strategic, Operational, &Tactical levels of command &control), should be tailored to fit the context of the state in question;

• Training in PSOs (POC&CP);pre-deployment & induction training, UN/AU standards of conduct, Respect for IHL;

• Resources: strengthen their capabilities, flexibility, delivery oriented PKOs;

• Be close to other CPA, share with them information regarding to threats and vulnarabilities against civilians and children for that matter;

• Have the will to protect. (Military doctrine)

Train hard in order to protect

When UN/AU fails to protect

Implementation of the UNSC/AUPSC

Resolutions

• The Military component is mandated by

UNSC/AUPSC to protect civilians. As

civilians,children are covered by that

mandate and their specific vulnerabilities

need to be taken into consideration;

• The military component is supposed to

prevent, monitor and report the six grave

violations against children.

Cont..

• Where missions are mandated to support the DDR processes, the military component may be mandated to support the implementation of action plans to release child soldiers.

• IN this case the military component may accompany Child Protection Advisers (CPAs) when they visit armed forces, military forces barracks to screen troops.

CHILD PROTECTION GUIDANCE

• The objectives of the mandate to be achieved effectively, will need to be translated into the mission plans, the concept of operations (CONOPs), the orders, and the directives of the military component right up to the tactical execution of the tasks;

• The translation of mandate's objectives into actionable plans is known as mainstreaming child protection into the task of the military component.

Authority, Command & Control in

UN PSO

Cont...

• Mainstreaming means incorporating child protection concerns at all levels of military engagements: At the Strategic, Operational and Tactical level.

• At Strategic Level, the UNSC authorizes a mandate for the mission that includes child protection.

Operational Level

• At operational level: SRSG is designated to implement directives from the UNSC. In his/her integrated mission team may include the Force Commander.

• The Force Commander wil conduct his own planning and produce plans, Directives and SOPs including reporting mechanisms for military units.

Tactical Level

• At tactical level - this will include all

subordinate command levels established

within Military command establishment.

• Tactical level comanders report to their

respective operational commanders

Military Roles and Responsibilities:

• Pre-deployment Phase, in this phase the military are trained on Peacekeeping Operations from their respective countries;

• Troops and commanders are trained on several peacekeeping requirements including child protection;

• To maintain UN high standards of conduct and descipline at all times.

Pre-Deployment Trainings cont..

• Provide training on International Legal Instruments and Frameworks.

• Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct.

• Ensure that individuals in the command structure are aware of and familiar with controls and sanctions that apply to the violation of legal standards and Code of Conduct.

Induction Training

• The troops must go through a mission

induction training upon arrival in area of

responsibility (AOR);

• The troops and commanders are further

trained on Rules of Engagement( ROE);

• On Information gathering and sharing it

with relavant child protection actors (CPA)

in a timely manner;

Induction cont...

• Each commander is responsible for

ensuring the respect of Childrens'

Rights in his/her sphere of command

Understanding the operational

environment

• Will enable the military component to carry

out the following duties:

• Preventing violence against children;

• Pre- emption

• response to threats and Vulnarabilities

agaisnt children and civilians ;

• Consolidation (actions to be taken).

Pre-emption • Pre - empting violations, demands thorough

understanding of the environment in order to identify

threats and vulnerabilities and then develop tactical

plans to deter or mitigate threats- by increasing patrols;

• What are the threats against children in your AOR ?

• Who is threating the children?

• What are their tactics?

• Why are they doing it?

• when do they do it (day or night)?

• where are their bases or where are they likely to strike?;

Cont..

• What is the government and community

doing about it?

• What are other agencies, UN agencies,

IOs, NGOs and local NGOs doing about it

and how can we work together ?

• Aftergetting answers to these questions

then the Military will include it in its

operational plans in order to reduce

vulnerabilities and threats against children.

Prevention

• Prevention of child violations requires thorough understanding of your operational envilonment in order to Identify specific risks and vulnerabilities to children in your AOR

a.This is achived by working with CP partners

b. Work with local communities

c. Mission civil affairs and child protection actors (CPA);

d. To some extent work with local authorities.

Response

• After Identifying the Threats and

vulnerabilities, and the threat of physical

violence is apparent, then the military will

take more active measures as per the

ROE.

• Deter the aggresor from carrying out

hostile actions by making the aggressor to

comply by use of direct military action.

Consolidation

• These are actions taken after prevention

and pre - empting the threats , in order to

fully complete the actions then report and

investigations be carried out;

• Military officers and soldiers must ensure

that accurate and timely reporting and

information sharing with mission CPA and

other CP actors is paramount in child

protection process.

The way Forward

• The Military component needs to be able

to protect themselves in order to protect

others, this will be achieved by:

• Allocating them with sufficient resources to

strengthen their capabilities, this will

create a stronger, flexible, agile delivery-

oriented peacekeeping operations.

Cont..

• Unclear mandates as well as misunderstanding

of the ROE inhibit decisive actions to protect

civilians and particularly children;

• Therefore PSOs must have clear mandates and

clear ROE which are tailored to fit the context of

the state in question.

• Protection of children is an integral component

of the overall mandate of PKOs and a

successful child protection mandate will require

inputs from all stakeholders in Peace Support

Operations.

References

• Ref: DPKO/ DFS, policy on mainstreaming

the protection rights and wellbeing of

children affected by armed conflicts with in

UN PKOs June 2009.

• UNCEF(2013) Continuing commitment to

the DRC.

THE END

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